Ubuntu Server 18.04 LVM out of space with improper default partitioning

Had the exact same problem with a fresh install of Ubuntu Server 18.04.1.

What I had to do was:

# We need to resize the logical volume to use all the existing and free space of the volume group
$ lvm
lvm> lvextend -l +100%FREE /dev/ubuntu-vg/ubuntu-lv
lvm> exit

# And then, we need to resize the file system to use the new available space in the logical volume
$ resize2fs /dev/ubuntu-vg/ubuntu-lv
resize2fs 1.44.1 (24-Mar-2018)
Filesystem at /dev/ubuntu-vg/ubuntu-lv is mounted on /; on-line resizing required
old_desc_blocks = 1, new_desc_blocks = 58
The filesystem on /dev/ubuntu-vg/ubuntu-lv is now 120784896 (4k) blocks long.

# Finally, you can check that you now have available space:
$ df -h
Filesystem                         Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
udev                               3.9G     0  3.9G   0% /dev
tmpfs                              786M  1.2M  785M   1% /run
/dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-ubuntu--lv  454G  3.8G  432G   1% /

If you didn't customize the LVM settings, the names for the volume group and logical volume should be the same as mine (ubuntu-vg and ubuntu-lv respectively).

If your partition is completely full, you could get a no space left error when trying to resize the logical volume like:

lvm> lvextend -l +100%FREE /dev/ubuntu-vg/ubuntu-lv
  /etc/lvm/archive/.lvm_computer: write error failed: No space left on device

The easiest way to fix this is by removing apt cache (it will get regenerated next time you do apt update), which should give you more than enough space to complete the operation:

$ rm -rf /var/cache/apt/*

It appears that you need to extend your Logical Volume.

It can be a bit tricky but if you understand that there are 3 parts, it'll be much easier.

  • Physical Volume (PV) => The physical space on a drive.

  • Volume Group (VG) => An abstracted amount of drive space that can be split between multiple drives/devices.

  • Logical Volume (LV) => The space that ubuntu "sees"

You'll need to extend your VG all the way across your 1TB Drive (or extend however much you want), then extend the Logical Volume group to take up that space.

Technet has a nice writeup that (if you follow carefully) you'll be able to follow and extend your drive.


Expected behavior on an LVM install is indeed the smaller partitions. The system creates minimal space waste on physical partition creation expecting you to customize and expand the LVM as needed, since the added partitions aren't necessary to the operating systems function, and users having additional storage space, quotas, and expansion is the point of having an on-the-fly expandable LV and VG

What it should do, however, is explain that better on install